The Blue Umbrella – Ruskin Bond

“The umbrella was like a flower, a great blue flower that had sprung up on the dry brown hillside.’

As soon as Binya saw the beautiful blue silk umbrella, she wanted it. She wanted it so badly that she was willing to exchange it for her lucky leopard’s claw pendant. No one in the village had such a fine umbrella and everywhere Binya went. the umbrella went too. There were many who envied Binya for her treasured possession, but the most envious of them was old Ram Bharosa, the shopkeeper who decided that by some means he must own the blue umbrella.

This short and humorous novella captures life in a hill village of Garhwal where ordinary characters become heroic, and others find opportunities to redeem themselves.